December 15, 2003

Bring down the devil

It would appear the man is mad. Time spent down a hole with mice and almost a million dollars presumably isn't stabilizing, of course. But probably he was like this before.

It's a classic problem in moral psychology. Take the following remarks by Chalabi. Do you take the final sentence as evidence for the truth of the first two, or as a reductio on them?

Ahmad Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress, said: "He was quite lucid. He had command of his faculties. He would not apologize to the Iraqi people. He did not deny any of the crimes he was confronted with having done. He tried to justify them."

Has any villain, in the history of the political world, ever done the Shakespearean/super-villian thing and just said: I did it because I am a villain. Villains like doing evil.

Here is the most over-the-top villain-at-bay speech in all of Shakespeare. Coming from the man who brought you Richard III and Iago, that is saying something. The speech is from Titus Andronicus, a preposterous play. But it would hardly be enough to get Saddam started, would it, if he decided to take this sort of line? So I suppose: delusional justifications it will be.

LUCIUS
Art thou not sorry for these heinous deeds?

AARON
Ay, that I had not done a thousand more.
Even now I curse the day - and yet, I think,
Few come within the compass of my curse,-
Wherein I did not some notorious ill,
As kill a man, or else devise his death,
Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it,
Accuse some innocent and forswear myself,
Set deadly enmity between two friends,
Make poor men's cattle break their necks;
Set fire on barns and hay-stacks in the night,
And bid the owners quench them with their tears.
Oft have I digg'd up dead men from their graves,
And set them upright at their dear friends' doors,
Even when their sorrows almost were forgot;
And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,
Have with my knife carved in Roman letters,
'Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.'
Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things
As willingly as one would kill a fly,
And nothing grieves me heartily indeed
But that I cannot do ten thousand more.

"listen buddy, I don't think the love life of Walt Disney should be any concern of yours."

Very good.

There are quite a few tragedies of the same period as Titus (early '90s, possibly late '80s) where the villains talk like that. The Spanish Tragedy, The Jew of Malta. Probably the ur-Hamlet was like that. And the Duchess of Malfi almost went back to that style, though not quite. I think there was a heavy Seneca-influence at that time, which wore away as they had more practice (real, urban, theatrical drama was new in the late '80s) and got more sophisticated and artful. I wonder to what extent Seneca based characters like that on the writing of Tacitus and Suetonius. Caligula and Nero were that kind of self-relishing villain, in the portrayals of them by the highly partial later generation.

J&B Have A Tipjar

J&B Have A Comment Policy

This edited version of our comment policy is effective as of May 10, 2006.

By publishing a comment to this blog you are granting its proprietors, John Holbo and Belle Waring, the right to republish that comment in any way shape or form they see fit.

Severable from the above, and to the extent permitted by law, you hereby agree to the following as well: by leaving a comment you grant to the proprietors the right to release ALL your comments to this blog under this Creative Commons license (attribution 2.5). This license allows copying, derivative works, and commercial use.

Severable from the above, and to the extent permitted by law, you are also granting to this blog's proprietors the right to so release any and all comments you may make to any OTHER blog at any time. This is retroactive. By publishing ANY comment to this blog, you thereby grant to the proprietors of this blog the right to release any of your comments (made to any blog, at any time, past, present or future) under the terms of the above CC license.

Posting a comment constitutes consent to the following choice of law and choice of venue governing any disputes arising under this licensing arrangement: such disputes shall be adjudicated according to Canadian law and in the courts of Singapore.

If you do NOT agree to these terms, for pete's sake do NOT leave a comment. It's that simple.

Confused by our comment policy?

We're testing a strong CC license as a form of troll repellant. Does that sound strange? Read this thread. (I know, it's long. Keep scrolling. Further. Further. Ah, there.) So basically, we figure trolls will recognize that selling coffee cups and t-shirts is the best revenge, and will keep away. If we're wrong about that, at least someone can still sell the cups and shirts. (Sigh.)